I have more questions than answers. But I believe in something much bigger and try to share the little glimpses I see. Please share yours. Together we can create more - I believe.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

It's all an editorial....

As a young broadcaster learning to do the news, my mentor said, "No matter how you present the news, you are creating an editorial." Simply by selecting what I thought was a top story and how much of the story to tell, I was being subjective, he said. And I was choosing stories from a wire service that had done the same. "Never be fooled that the news you read or the newscast you prepare is objective," he cautioned. "Make the best choices you can."
Everything ever written - every story ever told - is an editorial. At best, it's inspired by actual events. Something is always missing and there is always a greater context. It is always subjective.
We tend to think science as most objective but quantum physics identifies a variable called the observer:
"In quantum mechanics, the observer and the system being observed became mysteriously linked so that the results of any observation seemed to be determined in part by actual choices made by the observer." (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/observer.htm)
We should never be fooled that a given source has not been influenced by the "observer". There is no exception. It's dangerous to believe otherwise. If you find yourself reading this and saying there is an exception, study the origins of that source. Someone chose the words. Someone chose what to include and what not to include. If it originated in another language, someone decided how it should be translated. Even if everyone made the best choices they could, something is always missing and there is always greater context.
If we approach everything as though there is more - we don't have the full picture - we are much more careful in the choices we make. We leave room to learn something. And we aren't so quick to try to impress people with what we think we know.